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Sohrabuddin Sheikh was killed in a "cold blooded manner" during a "stage managed encounter" carried out by officials of Gujarat and Rajasthan Police in November 2005, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has said in a chargesheet filed in court.

"Investigations revealed that the police officials of Gujarat ATS and Rajasthan Special Task Force (STF) had stage managed the encounter of Sohrabuddin in Ahmedabad," it said.

"Sohrabuddin was taken from Arham Farm, brought to the encounter site and killed in a cold blooded manner. The ballistic expert opined that the bullet recovered from the body of Sohrabuddin was fired from the service revolver of Inspector N H Dabhi (one of the accused)."

According to the chargesheet filed on July 23 in a Special Court here, police had then claimed Sohrabuddin came to Ahmedabad, by a train from Surat, to kill a prominent political leader in the state.

In accordance with the plot, prime accused in the case, D G Vanzara, Dinesh M N and Rajkumar Pandiyan (all IPS officers), along with other accused-policemen formed a team and reached near Vishala Circle in Ahmedabad, the agency said.

The accused-policemen had shown that Sohrabuddin came on a motorcycle and when stopped by the police fired at them.

He was killed in retaliatory firing by the police. CBI probe, however, revealed the motorcycle was planted by ATS to present a fake encounter as genuine.

The chargesheet further said Kausarbi, wife of Sohrabuddin, was an eyewitness to the abduction of her husband. In eyes of the Gujarat and Rajasthan police officials, she was a "dangerous witness".

"She was eliminated by the accused persons and her body burnt in village Illol (native village of Vanzara)."

Investigation into the role of former police officer N K Amin, one of the accused who has turned approver, revealed that though he was not posted with ATS, he was in constant touch with Vanzara, Pandiyan and Amit Shah, then Gujarat Minister of State for Home who is now an accused.

"He (Amin) made/received as many as 25 calls from/to Shah between November 21, 2005 and November 30, 2005," it said.

The CBI probe further disclosed that in the early November 2005, one Tulsiram Prajapati was contacted by accused Abhay Chudasama (former DCP city Crime Branch) and produced before Vanzara, who asked him to make Sohrabuddin available before him as there was "a lot of political pressure".

Prajapati, killed in a police "encounter" in December 2006, was assured that (his friend) Sohrabuddin would get a safe passage and at the most would be put in jail for 3-4 months. No physical harm would be done to Sohrabuddin, it said.

Having got the assurance from Vanzara, Prajapati helped Chudasama in tracking Sohrabuddin.

According to the chargesheet, "elimination of Sohrabuddin was being used for extortion by the accused persons to establish an element of fear in the minds of the businessmen and others."

The accused persons from Rajasthan Police participated in the conspiracy because Sohrabuddin was terrorising the marble lobby in the neighbouring state, the CBI said.

Shah entrusted the job to Vanzara, Pandiyan and Chudasama. The BJP leader, who resigned from the state Ministry last week, was in constant touch over telephone with Vanzara when Sohrabuddin and his wife were in custody of Gujarat Police, the Central agency said.

After the case was transferred to CBI in January this year, Shah directed Patel and Chudasama, his close confidants, to "convince, coerce, threaten, influence the witnesses on his behalf to conceal the truth from CBI about the fake encounter of Sohrabuddin", the chargesheet noted.

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